हरबर्ट स्पेंसर
सब कुछ – प्रकृति, मन और समाज – सरल से जटिल की ओर विकसित होता है, और समाज तब सबसे अच्छा चलता है जब राज्य यथासंभव कम हस्तक्षेप करे।
पृष्ठभूमि
विक्टोरियाई प्रणाली-निर्माता जिन्होंने डार्विन की “ऑरिजिन” (1859) से पहले ही विकास को ब्रह्मांड से लेकर समाज तक सब कुछ का नियम बना दिया; डार्विन को पढ़ने के बाद उन्होंने “योग्यतम की उत्तरजीविता” गढ़ा (1864)। उनके नाम को बाद में “सामाजिक डार्विनवाद” से जोड़ा गया – असमानता और साम्राज्य को उचित ठहराने वाला एक लेबल, जो उनके अपने विचारों से अधिक स्थूल है, यद्यपि उनके विचारों में उसके लिए कुछ आधार भी हैं।
मुख्य विचार
- सरल से जटिल की ओर विकास
- जीव के रूप में समाज
- युद्धप्रिय बनाम औद्योगिक समाज
- न्यूनतम राज्य और अहस्तक्षेप (laissez-faire)
प्रभाव
जिनसे प्रभावित 1
चार्ल्स डार्विन
जिनसे प्रभावित
Spencer had formulated his evolutionism before Darwin, but after reading the Origin of Species he coined ‘survival of the fittest’ for natural selection (Principles of Biology, 1864). H. Spencer, The Principles of Biology, vol. I (1864); C. Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859), 5th ed. (1869); SEP “Herbert Spencer”
साक्ष्य: InPhO में भी · InPhO
चार्ल्स डार्विन › 1809–1882
जिन्हें प्रभावित किया 3
मुहम्मद अब्दुह
जिन्हें प्रभावित किया
Abduh admired Spencer, whom he visited in Brighton in 1903, and is reported to have translated his book on education into Arabic from French; the exact passage has not been checked. A. Kateman, “Tellings of an Encounter: A Meeting between Muḥammad ʿAbduh, Herbert Spencer and Wilfrid Blunt (1903)”, Philological Encounters 3 (2018); A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age (1962)
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
मुहम्मद अब्दुह › 1849–1905
एलेन की
जिन्हें प्रभावित किया
In The Century of the Child (1900) Key held that Spencer’s thoughts ‘contain a great truth’ and based education on the child’s own natural development. E. Key, Barnets århundrade (1900); Eng. The Century of the Child (1909); H. Spencer, Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical (1861)
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
एलेन की › 1849–1926
येन फ़ू
जिन्हें प्रभावित किया
In the commentaries to his Tianyanlun (1898) Yan Fu sided with Spencer against Huxley, treating evolution as progress and applying the struggle for survival to nations. Yan Fu, Tianyanlun (1898), commentaries; B. Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (1964)
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
येन फ़ू › 1854–1921
आलोचना
जिनके द्वारा आलोचित 4
ख़ोसे मार्ती
जिनके द्वारा आलोचित
Reviewing Spencer’s “The Coming Slavery” (La América, 1884), Martí granted that state socialism might create a new servitude but objected that Spencer passed over the misery of the poor and the abuses of concentrated wealth that drive people towards it. J. Martí, “Herbert Spencer. La futura esclavitud”, La América (New York), April 1884; Obras completas XV
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
ख़ोसे मार्ती › 1853–1895
एमिल दुरकेम
जिनके द्वारा आलोचित
Durkheim argued against Spencer that industrial society cannot rest on free contracts alone, since every contract presupposes non-contractual social rules (The Division of Labour in Society, 1893, I.7). É. Durkheim, De la division du travail social (1893), Book I, ch. 7
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
एमिल दुरकेम › 1858–1917
आँरी बेर्गसोन
जिनके द्वारा आलोचित
Bergson, once drawn to Spencer, charged his ‘false evolutionism’ with rebuilding evolution out of fragments of the already evolved, missing real duration (Creative Evolution, 1907, ch. 4). H. Bergson, L’Évolution créatrice (1907), ch. IV; SEP “Henri Bergson”
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
आँरी बेर्गसोन › 1859–1941
टैल्कॉट पार्सन्स
जिनके द्वारा आलोचित
Parsons opened The Structure of Social Action (1937) with Brinton’s question ‘Who now reads Spencer?’, declaring Spencer’s positivist, utilitarian evolutionism dead. T. Parsons, The Structure of Social Action (1937), ch. 1; C. Brinton, English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century (1933)
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
टैल्कॉट पार्सन्स › 1902–1979
जिनकी आलोचना की 2
जेरेमी बेन्थम
जिनकी आलोचना की
Spencer objected that Bentham’s greatest-happiness principle gives no guidance, since happiness is undefinable, and put the law of equal freedom in its place (Social Statics, 1851). H. Spencer, Social Statics (1851), Introduction (“The Doctrine of Expediency”), ch. 4
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
जेरेमी बेन्थम › 1748–1832
आगस्त काँत
जिनकी आलोचना की
In ‘Reasons for Dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte’ (1864) Spencer rejected Comte’s linear classification of the sciences and denied being his follower. H. Spencer, “Reasons for Dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte” (1864), appended to The Classification of the Sciences (1864)
साक्ष्य: AI मसौदा
आगस्त काँत › 1798–1857
कृतियाँ
समाज एक बढ़ते जीव के रूप में – “आदिम मनुष्य” के विचारों और घरेलू संस्थाओं से युद्धप्रिय और औद्योगिक समाजों के अंतर तक।
मत
Spencer believed that one law governs the whole of reality: evolution, the movement from simple, uniform states to complex, differentiated and integrated ones. He formulated it before Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) and understood it largely in Lamarck’s terms, through the inheritance of acquired characteristics; after reading Darwin he coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” (1864). Society, for Spencer, is an organism whose parts become ever more specialised and interdependent. He contrasted “militant” societies, held together by force and command, with “industrial” societies based on voluntary cooperation and contract, and he defended a strictly limited state: poor relief and state welfare would only hinder adaptation. The label “Social Darwinism”, used mostly by critics and made current by Richard Hofstadter’s study of 1944, cast him as its chief theorist. His ideas were indeed cited to justify laissez-faire capitalism, racial hierarchy and empire, and he shared the Victorian ranking of “primitive” and “civilised” peoples; yet he also opposed militarism and the Boer War. Durkheim answered his theory of contract, and Parsons opened his book of 1937 by borrowing the question “Who now reads Spencer?”
जीवन और संदर्भ
Herbert Spencer was born in 1820 in Derby, the son of a Dissenting schoolteacher, and was educated at home and by an uncle; he never attended university. He worked as a railway engineer and, from 1848 to 1853, as sub-editor of The Economist, during which time he published his first book, Social Statics (1851). An inheritance allowed him to live as an independent writer. From 1860 he spent almost four decades on his System of Synthetic Philosophy, which ran from First Principles (1862) through biology, psychology and sociology to ethics. He was one of the most widely read thinkers of the Victorian age, especially in the United States. In poor health for much of his life, he never married and died in Brighton in 1903.
अन्य प्रमुख कृतियाँ
- Social Statics (1851)
- First Principles (1862)
- The Principles of Biology (1864–67)
- The Study of Sociology (1873)
- The Principles of Sociology (1876–96)
- The Man versus the State (1884)
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